Russian Court Says Meta Is, in Fact, Just as Bad as ISIS

A judge upheld a lawsuit by state prosecutors, which resulted in Facebook becoming an Extremist organization in the Russian government.

Meta was reclassified by the Russian government after a revision of the company's policies on political speech. The company will keep the same legal company as militant groups like the Taliban and the Islamic State, which share an undesirable label, because of Meta's failed attempt at an appeal. Meta is the first foreign technology company to be targeted by Russia's extremism law.

Russian state prosecutors lashed out at the company after it changed its policies to allow users in other countries to make violent threats against Russian troops and military officials. Executives told employees that the company's policy does not permit calls to assassinate a head of state. Meta's President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, said at the time that the company wanted to protect people's rights to speech as an expression of self-defense.

It's not clear what new implications the designation will have for Meta. Russia began blocking access to Facebook in late February. Local engineers have begun to develop their own clone of the photo-sharing app. According to The New York Times, Russians trying to buy ads on Facebook or trade Meta stock could be seen as financing a terrorist organization. The court claimed that the ruling wouldn't lead to the prosecution of individuals for merely using the apps.

Russia just passed a new law that can lead to 15 years in prison for spreading false information about the government. There is still a lot of appetite domestically for banned content. Demand for virtual private networks in Russia has increased by over two thousand% since the invasion began, according to a recent report.